Chicagoland Lifestyle Photography

isla and cohen.

These kiddos have a pretty inspiring story. After the birth of Isla, their dad, Ryan, made a vow to commit an act of kindness every single day for a year. He blogged about it here, and when I first heard of this story I was definitely intrigued. He had done some pretty amazing things, bringing lots of joy to other people, as well as raising money and awareness for various charities along the way. I saw him on the news, and his stories made my eyes well up….so inspiring! Fast forward a bit, to the birth of Cohen. Cohen was born with 22Q, a disorder which has caused him a lot of health related problems since birth. His mama, Lindsey blogged about their journey in and out of hospitals and my heart was overflowing with love for this family I had yet to even meet.

Ryan had contacted me back when Isla was much younger to do a photo shoot, but the timing didn’t work out. Shortly after he reached out, was when I learned about the random acts of kindness project he was doing; I let him know that I wanted to complete an act of kindness and offered a shoot to him when we could get our schedules in order – He later contacted me again, to try to coordinate something once Cohen was here – but Cohen’s first few months of life we were pretty hectic and again, we couldn’t make our schedules match.

Fast forward to this weekend. Turns out Lindsey would be out of town, and her birthday was Monday, so Ryan had me come by to do some photos of the kids as a surprise birthday gift. As a mother, I would be so touched by something like this! I was definitely looking forward to this shoot and meeting his little ones.

Spending the morning with these two beautiful kids was so humbling. Cohen is such a brave, strong little fighter, and Isla is such a caring, loving big sister. They both opened up to me, a complete stranger, early in the morning (and with a time change to boot!) and did such a wonderful job.

I encourage you to check out ryan’s blog and I hope it would inspire you to offer up a random act of kindness. A little bit sure can go a long way! You may also want to consider donating to The Dempster Family Foundation, which is dedicated to improving the quality of life to those affected with 22Q.